


numinous

by TheSpaceCoyote



Series: Huxloween 2019 [10]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Artist Kylo Ren, Body Paint, Domestic Fluff, Halloween, M/M, Married Life, Mpreg, Pregnant Armitage Hux, Soft Goth Kylo Ren, Soft Kylux, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 10:54:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21252218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSpaceCoyote/pseuds/TheSpaceCoyote
Summary: Kylo shows off his art skills using his favorite canvas—his husband.





	numinous

**Author's Note:**

> Decided to throw together another spooky husbands drabble just for the hell of it. Set in the same universe as ["the warlock's house."](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21062201)

Kylo had built a comfortable little nest for Hux on the floor of the living room, piling up throw pillows from the couch and draping Hux’s favorite plush blanket over the top of them; the one with the black and white bat patterns on it, that Kylo had sewn together on a whim earlier on in their relationship and given Hux as a present when he complained of the chill in his old house. 

“Are you sure you don’t want me to sit on the couch?” Hux asks as he ambles on over to where Kylo crouches next to the nest, spreading out sheets of newspaper on the carpeted floor and organizing a mismatched array of pregnancy-safe body paints and well-used brushes. He’s sporting his usual bat choker and dark jeans, just with his black V-neck swapped out for a spiderweb-patterned tank top that molds against his pectorals and shows off the contours of his broad shoulders. Considering Kylo typically wears multiple layers at once, it’s a rare and well-appreciated treat to see so much skin on such prominent display. 

Kylo shakes his head, glossy hair cascading around his face with the subtle movement. “It’ll be easier on the floor.” He rises to take Hux’s hand and helps him sit, supporting his lower back as Hux eases himself into the comfortable nook of pillows with a sigh. “Besides,” Kylo leans forward on his hands and knees once Hux is settled, toothy smile a couple of inches from his husband’s face, “you look very cute, nestled all snugly like this.”

Hux blushes with a disbelieving snort, looking down at himself. He’s wearing his usual orange jack-o’-lantern sweater, its cheerful expression stretched wide over the pregnant swell of his belly. He rests his hands on top of it, giving it a small rub. His current size really adds to the overall impression, making him look like he’s swallowed an entire pumpkin whole. 

“Only you would think I look cute when I’m this huge,” Hux groans, prodding where his navel sticks out through his sweater. In his opinion, even “huge” is a bit of an understatement. And somehow there’s still three months left to go. Hux doesn’t understand how he could possibly get any bigger, and to speak the truth he’s a little worried about how he’ll look and feel the closer he gets to his due date. It’s already hard enough to waddle around with a baby kicking around his insides, throwing off his center of gravity, and causing him to break down crying over the silliest of things. What’ll it be like once he’s as ready to pop as an overfilled Halloween party balloon?

“Well, I’d hope so. I’m your husband, I’m the only one allowed to think you look cute.” Hux scoffs at Kylo’s casual possessiveness, but he’s right. Anyone else who called Hux “cute” or something in the same vein would quickly earn both of their ire, just for different reasons. 

“Alright. Lemme get a look at the canvas I’m working with.” Kylo situates himself in front of Hux, sitting cross-legged, shoes off, wearing only pinstripe black socks. Hux nods and rolls up the hem of his sweater, revealing the pale expanse of his bare belly. He shimmies down the waistband of his loose-fit, low-slung pants, wiggling in his seat as he gives Kylo full access to however much of his skin he’s going to need for his painting. 

“Do you know what you’re going to make yet?”

Kylo shrugs his shoulders. “Sort of. Got a general idea in my mind, but we’ll see what happens,” he says, flicking a strand of hair off his forehead with the end of his brush. “I usually just kind of figure it out as I go along.” Hux raises his brows dubiously, but Kylo just smiles and pecks his lips, before grabbing a clean plastic palette and squeezing out a dollop of glimmery purple paint into one of the wells. He dips the tip of the brush into the paint and, with his tongue pressed to the inside of his cheek, starts to stroke it across Hux’s skin. 

The feeling of the soft bristles and unexpectedly cool paint causes Hux to shiver and let out a small titter. Kylo stops, raising an eyebrow at him, but Hux dismisses his concern with a simper and wave of the hand. 

“Keep going. It just feels a little different, is all.”

“Alright. But if it feels too weird or tickles too much, you can tell me to stop.” Kylo brushes another long line of glimmery purple over Hux’s skin, and this time it feels a little less odd than before. He gets used to the sensation quickly, likening it to cool, soft fingers ghosting over the taut, somewhat sore skin of his belly. 

Hux’s mind drifts as he watches Kylo paint, the ambient music playing over the sound system lulling him bit by bit into a peaceful trance. During the Halloween season, Kylo’s house is almost never silent, with soft droning organs and eerie Celtic folk songs always piping through the air. Oddly, it comforts Hux, though he should find it unsettling. That was like most things in Kylo’s—and now his—house. Weird, unnerving, even a little gruesome on the outside, but domestic and welcoming on the inside, once one got past all the gothic fixtures and lurid artwork Kylo liked to keep on the walls. 

After a while, Hux actually nods off, relaxed by the soft swirls and strokes of Kylo’s paintbrushes against his belly and the gently strange music in his ears. When he comes to, he finds himself lying down in the nest, blinking against the antique brightness from the lamp beside the couch, which is quickly blotted out by Kylo’s silhouette as he leans over him, smiling like a watchful specter. 

“Awake?” Kylo offers his hand, helping Hux to sit back up. “Just in time. The paint’s about dry.”

Hux looks down, only for Kylo to catch his chin in hand and keep their eyes locked. 

“Hold on. I want you to be able to see the whole thing properly.” 

Kylo helps Hux to his feet, steering him over to the corner of the living room where a large, ornately framed full-length mirror that looks plucked right from a haunted estate sale, stands next to the matte black bookcase. Once half-filled with cryptic knick-knacks and occult tomes of varying age and credibility, Hux’s old textbooks from law school and favorite novels now occupy some of the spare space. 

Hux yawns, rubbing at his eyes, trying his best not to steal a sneak peek at his belly until Kylo positions him in front of the mirror. 

“Okay...behold!” Kylo whispers, flourishing his hands with the theatrics of a magician pulling back the shroud on the sawed-up body of their assistant. 

Honestly, Hux had expected Kylo to paint something ghoulish or gruesome on his belly. He’d seen a lot of the paintings that filled the spare room that Kylo used as a studio, and most featured garishly colored demons engaged in gleeful torture or stark, haunting portraits of unknown figures that made Hux feel lonely and hollow just looking at them. But what he discovers painted across the expanse of his belly in the reflection of the old mirror is nothing like any of Kylo’s work that Hux has seen before. 

Against a backdrop of deep swirling purples and dusky blues sits a landscape of a sprawling forest, webs of black branches and stylized leaves depicted in striking silhouette. Near Hux’s navel looms a full, silvery moon, surrounded by speckled stars and spotted with dark craters painted to resemble a skull-like face. Through the dark grass painted along the underside of his belly, over the worst of his stretchmarks, Hux spies a streak of feathered orange paint with a little face and whiskers, obviously a cat, with a second painted alongside it in sleek black, their tails twining together and forming a little heart with the tips. 

It definitely has a creepy edge to it, characteristic of Kylo’s typical handiwork, but the overall impression of the piece is utterly beautiful; like a darker, more mysterious, but no less timeless take on The Starry Night, and it steals Hux’s breath away as he stands, gaping at it in the mirror. This window to another world that his husband has opened up inside of him.

Kylo drapes his arms around Hux’s chest, bending over slightly to hug him from behind.

“Well?” he says with a kiss to the side of Hux’s head. “What do you think? It reminds me of the night we first met. I even put Millie and Vader in there.” He points them out in the mirror. When Hux doesn’t respond right away, he frowns. “Hux? What’s up?”

Hux tries to rub away a sniffle, but he can’t help himself. Tears well up in his eyes, and he squeezes them shut, hands wrapped into fists. Hux feels Kylo move around him, steps soft as ever despite his bulk and height, and when he opens his eyes again Kylo’s standing between him and the mirror, expression upturned with obvious worry. 

“Hey, if you don’t like it, you can totally wash it off. No big deal. Don’t cry, I just wanted to—”

“What? No,” Hux shakes his head, hands flat against Kylo’s chest. He looks down beneath them to where his sweater is still rolled up over his painted belly. “I...I really love it...I’m just..._ugh_, damned hormones, you know?” He lets out an amused sniff, rubbing his streaming eye with the butt of his palm. “I’m just overwhelmed. You made something huge and cumbersome so beautiful.”

“You’re already beautiful,” Kylo says quickly. He gets on his knees, eyes looking up at Hux over the curve of his belly. They’re moist too, filled with just as much emotion as Hux’s are. “You’re the best, most beautiful canvas I’ve ever had the honor to paint on, don’t you ever think otherwise.”

A smile glimmers on Hux’s lips, before he parts them in a small laugh. “I thought you didn’t want me to cry?” he says with uncustomary softness as Kylo places a tender kiss on his belly, right below the skull-like moon. Thankfully, the paint is dried by this point and doesn’t come away on his lips, leaving his work unblemished.

“Sorry. I’m just...I’m so lucky. Sometimes I can’t really believe that I have you.” Kylo rubs thoughtful circles into Hux’s hips, his warm eyes growing distant and misted for a moment before he rises to his feet. “If you like it, and you don’t mind, I’d like to get a couple of pictures. You know. Just to capture the moment. I don’t even have to put them online.”

Kylo has an Instagram account where he promotes some of the physical goods he sells in his store and posts some pictures from his daily life. Hux has featured in a couple of candids, but Kylo always asks his permission before posting anything, knowing Hux values his privacy, _ especially _ with the pregnancy and impending birth of their baby. But oddly at the moment, the thought of strangers on the internet seeing his belly, especially now that it looked like _ this_, didn’t concern Hux all that much.

“But it’s a part of your art, isn’t it?” Hux asks as Kylo leads him back to the nest of blankets, tears finally drying up in his eyes, storm of emotion passed. “You should share it with your audience. I promise I don’t mind,” he adds when Kylo shoots him a dubious look. 

“I mean, it’s alright if we wanna just keep some things between the two of us," Kylo says, "but let’s take some pictures anyway, and we’ll see how we feel after.”

Hux nearly nods off again as he relaxes back into the nest, resting his hands atop his belly as Kylo fetches his camera. Later, once he’s perked up a bit with the help of some warm mint tea and a nibble of yesterday’s pumpkin scones, they pour over the pictures together at the kitchen table. Ultimately, they decide to post a couple of photos focused mostly on the mural itself, including some zoomed-in images that show off the extent of the intricate details Kylo had put into the painting. 

But a series of full-body snapshots with a sleepy, half-lidded Hux gazing fondly at his belly? Well, those they keep for themselves. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hit me up on [Tumblr](http://thethespacecoyote.tumblr.com) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/heir_of_breath7/).


End file.
